August 26, 2009 at 21:52 · Filed under Photographer, Photography Market
Last year’s Paris Photo fair with Japan as “Guest of Honour” was a huge success and on this occasion the Dutch photography magazine “foam” had contacted me to do an interview with Mariko Takeuchi, the Guest Curator of Paris Photo. The interview was published in foam magazine #17, winter 2008. I will publish the full interview in two parts. The images are a new addition for the blog [the interview was without images, except some very nice portraits of Mariko :-)].
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Part I (of II)
The 2008 edition of Paris Photo – one of the world’s most important fairs for still photography – took place in the Carrousel du Louvre in mid-November. This year Japan was Guest of Honour, an exceptional opportunity to present an overview of Japanese photography. Photography has been a major feature of Japanese culture since its introduction in 1848, attracting wide international attention in the 1990s and growing world interest ever since.
We asked Ferdinand Brueggemann, Director of Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne and passionate founder of the photo blog Japan-Photo.info to discuss the current state of Japanese photography with the Guest Curator of the show, Mariko Takeuchi.
Ferdinand Brueggemann:
After decades of practically ignoring Japanese photography, why do you think the Western art world is suddenly developing a strong interest in learning about it?
Mariko Takeuchi:
I don’t think that it happens so sudden. It seems that the interest in Japanese photography in the Western countries grew in the 1990s especially, with a focus on individual artists like Nobuyoshi Araki, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Daido Moriyama. Then curators, collectors and researchers gradually became aware of the richness of Japanese photography and turned more attention to their background – this seems to coincide with the growing interest in the Japanese culture and subculture in general. The exhibition “History of Japanese Photography” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2003 was on a monumental event. And now we have the Paris Photo fair with Japan as guest of honor at the Paris Photo fair.
Read the rest of this entry »
September 17, 2006 at 12:50 · Filed under Photography Market, Publication
Books on Photography Books
In the last years the interest in Japanese photography books has jumped from non recognition to becoming a must have not only for specialized photo book collectors. Books which were completely unknown outside Japan except to a few well informed collectors and researchers are now sold at high prices by rare book dealers and at auctions.
It all began in 1999 with the exhibition catalogue “Fotografia Publica. Photography in Print 1919-1939″. Read the rest of this entry »
November 25, 2004 at 22:26 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Mathematical Forms. Surfaces 0009
Unfortunately I missed the exhibition at Fondation Cartier (until Feb. 27, 2005) when I was in Paris recently, but it seems that Hiroshi Sugimoto is returning to his distinctive, extremely reduced conceptual and clear cut style. The catalogue to this complete new series is scheduled for December 10.
“My new body of work, Conceptual Forms, consists of two parts, Mathematical Forms and Mechanical Forms. Mathematical Forms is subdivided into Surfaces and
Curves.
Mathematical Forms are photographs of stereometric plaster models that were used to provide a visual understanding of complex trigonometric functions. They were made in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Mechanical Forms are photographs of mechanical models that were used to demonstrate basic movements of modern machines. They were made in England during the late 19th century.
These machines and models were created without any artistic intention. This is what motivated me to produce this series of photographs and title them Conceptual Forms. Art is possible without artistic intention and can be better without it.”
Hiroshi Sugimoto
November 24, 2004 at 19:11 · Filed under Photography Market, Publication
“Farwell Photography” by Daido Moriyama (Shashin yo Sayonara, 1972) is one of a dozen Japanese photography books (others are from Eikoh Hosoe, Jun Morinaga and Ikko Nakahara) being included in the upcoming auction “Photographic Literature” at Swann in New York, Dec. 7. The estimate for the book is 4.500 – 5.500 US$! This is above the price range I have seen in France recently. Even this book belongs undoubtly to the important photography books of the 20s century – more on Japanese photobooks and their current appraisal in a future post – I wonder what makes this book the second most expensive book in the auction behind a book by Robert Frank. We will see if the auction will confirm the high estimate…
Speaking of prices, during the extremely successful auction “Veronica’s Revenge” two weeks ago at Phillips, de Pury & Company, New York a “Seascape” by Hiroshi Sugimoto reached 27.600 US$ (estimate 10.000 – 15.000 US$).
Phillips, de Pury & Company New York, Veronica’s Revenge (Session 2), 11/9/2004
